The present invention relates generally to upholstered articles of furniture and, more particularly, to a detachable seat back assembly of the type used in sofas and modular seating units and having a flip-down table and a storage bin incorporated therein.
Due to the highly competitive nature of the furniture industry, manufacturers have a substantial interest in developing articles of furniture which offer improved comfort and convenience to consumers. Thus, it is known to incorporate various comfort features (i.e., reclining units, rocking units, extensible leg rests, etc.) into the seat sections of otherwise traditional articles of furniture.
To provide additional convenience to the seat occupants, it is known to position a console unit between two seat sections of a sofa or a modular sectional arrangement. One example of such an arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,244 to Sproule and includes an upholstered console unit having a raised pedestal which functions as a padded arm rest. The raised pedestal, however, tends to detract from the continuity of available seating area on the sofa. Thus, it has been proposed to incorporate a "flip-down" console or table into the center backrest of the sofa. The upholstered backrest can be selectively moved between an upright position wherein the table surface is concealed, and a horizontal position wherein the backrest overlies the seat to permit access to the table surface. Typically, conventional "flip-down" tables utilize a hinge mechanism for causing pivotable movement of the upholstered backrest relative to a stationary portion of the sofa's frame. One example of a "flip-down" table arrangement of the type incorporated into the backrest of a sofa is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,240,748 to Bak. A similar construction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,182 to Rasnick wherein the hinge mechanism is a snap-type "break-away" linkage that is operable to frictionally retain the movable backrest portion in the open horizontal position under most conditions, yet which becomes releasably disengaged in response to the application of loads on the table which exceed a predetermined value.